Zander Price’s life looks very different today than it did a decade ago. Back then, he was in the finance world in New York City. He made good money, working incredibly long hours. He was living a traditional life and achieving a traditional brand of success, but there were tradeoffs. His lifestyle left little time for travel, and that was something he yearned for.
Zander enjoyed his work, but as he faced the rest of his life in the corporate world, he sensed a deep dissatisfaction. He’d begun to feel a calling to travel, and to live more simply. And as he looked at the lives of those around him, he came to a radical conclusion: He didn’t want it anymore, the money, the things, the corporate ladder. He wanted to see the world.
So Zander made a drastic life change and began on a path that would take him to the most exotic, exciting places on earth. Along the way, he found photography. He didn’t really start taking pictures until he was in his 30’s but soon it was a passion which he couldn’t get enough of. His photos create a vivid record of his new life, of the places he’s visited and the memories he holds dear — of a life that is driven by beauty and travel instead of money and work. It’s a thrilling journey.
Your pictures are from all over! How much time do you spend traveling for your photography?
I pretty much travel all the time. I have a home in New York, so I suppose that’s my base. But I’m maybe here three months a year and then kind of just wander around the rest of the time.
How do you pick the places you go?
I just sort of let the wind take me. I’m going to South Africa next week, kind of just figured I hadn’t been there and it was time to go. It’s just really something like that.
Are you traveling by yourself to South Africa?
Yeah, I tend to travel by myself most of the time with trips like this. I just kind of show up and hopefully make some friends, and if I do I’ll stay, and if I don’t I’ll kind of move along.
How do you afford to go on so many trips?
I have some real estate investments in New York that sort of fund my travel budget. I just rent out some properties and that’s kind of my income.
What was the last big trip you went on?
I was just in Mexico for three weeks. I spent lot of time in Central and South America last winter. Last year’s winter. Just surfing and wandering around. I really enjoyed Ecuador. Spent some time in El Salvador and Nicaragua too. But nothing too exotic lately.
What made you fall in love with photography? Have you always taken pictures?
It’s in my blood, I think. My grandfather was pretty serious — definitely a hobbyist — but a really good photographer. But I didn’t really pick it up until I was about 30 for whatever reason. I don’t know why. And then I was just like, holy shit, why have I not been doing this my whole life?
I read in an interview that you kind of prefer inanimate objects to people. Is that still true? And what is it about an object that draws you in?
There’s just something about inanimate objects, especially like flat 2D kind of compositions, that I love. It’s probably some sort of OCD that’s in my brain because I just love perfect balance and sharp angles and stuff.
What’s your editing process like? Do you like going through all the photos, or is that a tedious process for you?
I really enjoy editing. I try to click off as few frames as possible and just have it as close to done as I can coming right out of the camera. I don’t even know how to use Photoshop, to be honest. I just process the colors and crop the photos when necessary. I took a lighting, an off-camera flash tutorial with this guy in New Jersey years ago, and he told me something that I’ll always remember. He’s like, “I like to create the illusion that everything that comes out of my camera is good.” If I take a shot and I don’t like it then I’ll delete it right away, so the editing kind of starts right there. Then when I get it on the computer, it’s pretty fast. My turnaround time is quick.
I read that you spend time living out of vans and odd places when you’re traveling. What are the challenges of that lifestyle?
Yeah, I live in a van when I’m in California and in L.A. It’s not challenging at all. I love it. I have a pretty nice van. I first got into that when I was in New Zealand two years ago. My girlfriend at the time and I rented a camper van on the south islands of New Zealand, but kind of everyone does that. After the first night we woke up on some beach on the east side of the island. I was just like, wow, I need one of these. I ended up getting one for the U.S.
The only challenge, and everyone asks this straight away, is where do you go to the bathroom? You kind of just learn to hold it really well. Just a few tips. I won’t drink a lot of beer at night if I know I’m staying in the van because you can’t get out and take a leak anywhere when you’re staying in the middle of Venice, you know?
Do you normally park it in Venice?
I’m usually in Venice. The past year or so I’ve been spending a lot of time in Venice. I was looking for a place there for a while. Couldn’t find anything I liked and in the meantime I was just staying in the van, and after a couple weeks I thought it was perfect. I just thought, I don’t need an apartment. And I get a membership to a gym so I have a shower and sauna and pool and everything. It’s pretty easy. I do trips around mostly the west part of the US in that van. I’ve done several months in Europe in a van.
It’s the way to go. I have a small apartment in New York and I prefer the small spaces. I used to live in a giant apartment in Tribeca. I worked in a financial firm and thought that stuff was the answer to everything, and I’ve found after a number of years that it’s not and I prefer to live in a van.
You’ve gone to a more untraditional lifestyle. What was it that finally made you decide not to do the financial thing anymore?
I worked in that industry for 11 years and there were times when I loved it and just couldn’t believe that I could go to work every day. But there was a shift near the end where I just saw a lot of people that were colleagues or just people in the industry, and I didn’t like what I saw. I didn’t want to turn into that. Each year there was some thing that I thought I needed to get and it just couldn’t make me happy. And I never traveled anywhere during that period. One year I finally just said, that’s enough and became a backpacker around Europe for a few months and was hooked.
In a lot of ways you’re living the dream. I think a lot of people would like to just give up their jobs and travel. Do you have any advice for people who want to do that?
It’s a lot easier than people think. This is the extreme example but people that I worked with who are extremely wealthy, I would tell them stories about how I was staying in a hostel with 30 people for 3 Euros a night or something in some weird Eastern European country and they’d look at me like I’d spent the night at Riker’s Island. But it’s not as hard as you think to downsize. I can live indefinitely out of a tiny bag that’s a carryon. I own like two pairs of shoes. It’s just very simple, it’s really easy, and you don’t have to worry about anything.
Do you ever find that it’s hard to have relationships with you traveling so much?
It can be, but whether that’s because of my lifestyle or myself, that’s another question. There are a lot of people doing the same thing that I am, in different ways. I meet other travelers … I think actually the majority of my friendship groups now are sort of people that are nomads, for lack of a better word, like I am. I tend to meet people who are having that same lifestyle and have relationships with them.
Can you tell me the story behind one of your pictures?
That [below] was one at Yosemite. There were busloads of tourists and it was the most crowded parking lot you’ve ever seen. But I was standing there just watching people walk by and a shot opened up for a split second. (The subject) is actually on his phone, I don’t know if you can tell that.
No, I can’t.
It looks so peaceful to me. That’s one of my favorite photos. I have it on my wall at home. It’s the way that it captured a moment of peace when everything was so hectic around it.
It’s cool that you get to do that as a photographer, capture those tiny moments that most people would let just slide by.
It’s very powerful in that sense. And also, for me anyway, the memories in my life are so much more vibrant than they were previously because I’m constantly looking at my photos and I just remember everything. I can feel where I was with all those shots. It’s very powerful.
Do you have a philosophy when you’re traveling?
I like to just show up to a city, make sure I book two nights of accommodation somewhere so I’m not wandering around looking for something in the middle of the night. I like to just put on music usually and just walk around and get bearings of where I am. Hopefully take some photos, find a coffee shop, meet people if I can. I like to just keep it simple and not plan anything that I don’t have to, and be open to anything.
Morocco, 2014
Metzabok, 2014
Bushwick, 2014
Maderas, 2015
La Boca, 2015
